When Hal and I first moved to the DC metro area, I hated it here. I liked being closer to my family, and my parents had been rooting for DC; they knew it was a close as I'd likely get to them, about 220 miles southwest of DC -- only a four-hour drive as opposed to twelve -- but I liked little else about the area then. I regularly said I'd be in DC "a year, two at the most." Well, I've now lived here for more than fifteen years. Until a few years ago, I'd never really felt that this area was really my "home," but when I found myself unemployed and with no relationship ties to the area most of this past year, I still was loathe to consider leaving. And Arlington County (link 2) itself is an extraordinarily nice place to live. It has a good energy, a nice mix of urban and suburban feel, and several distinct neighborhoods. In the DC metro area, I've also lived and worked in Old Town, Alexandria; and Dupont Circle (link 2) --the heart of gay DC. In Arlington County, I've lived in Pentagon City, Cherrydale, Ballston, and Courthouse. In October, 1997, I bought a great 2-bedroom condo in the Columbia Heights neighborhood off Columbia Pike (link 2) in South Arlington, about a mile from the Pentagon.

Original photo from Arlington County, Virginia official web site

Arlington's not too big, relatively safe (especially compared to DC) and very gay-friendly (Arlington and neighboring city Alexandria were the first two jurisdictions in the otherwise fairly regressive Commonwealth of Virginia to pass local antidiscrimination ordinances pertaining to sexual orientation, and Arlington boasts a very active gay and lesbian group, the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance), and is home to one of the largest and active Unitarian Universalist congregations in the world. The county also is readily accessible by public transportation, Washington National Airport (I refuse to call it Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) as well as Interstate routes 66 and 395, and has a well-maintained and comprehensive system of bike trails.

So after spending the first eighteen years of my life in Virginia assuming I'd spend the rest of my life elsewhere, in just a few years I'll have spent as much time in Northern Virginia and DC as I did in the southwestern part of the Commonwealth.